The Vale of Cedars eBook

Great was the surprise and many the conjectures of
the Queen’s female court, when rather more than
six months after her strange disappearance, the widow
of Morales re-appeared amongst them; not publicly
indeed, for at the various fetes and amusements of
the palace, and elsewhere, Marie was never seen.
Her existence, however, and safety, under Isabella’s
especial protection, were no longer kept secret; and
her recent loss was in itself quite sufficient reason
for her strict retirement. Her identity with
brother Ernest, the supposed novice, never transpired;
he was supposed to have returned with Perez to his
guardian, Father Ambrose, who, though seen and questioned
by Don Alonzo at the village, did not accompany his
dying penitent to Segovia, nor, in fact, was ever
seen in that city again.

The tender care and good nursing which had been lavished
on Marie, had restored her sufficiently to health
as to permit returning elasticity of mind. All
morbid agony had passed, all too passionate emotions
were gradually relaxing their fire-bands round her
heart; and strength, the martyr strength, for which
she unceasingly prayed, to give up all if called upon
for her God, seemed dawning for her. That she
was still under some restraint, a sort of prisoner
in the palace, Marie herself was not aware; she had
neither wish nor energy to leave the castle, and therefore
knew not that her egress, save under watchful guardianship,
would have been denied. She had no spirits to
mingle with the light-hearted, happy girls, in her
Sovereign’s train, and therefore was unconscious
that, with the sole exception of Catherine whose passionate
entreaties had obtained her this privilege, all intimacy
with them would have been effectually prevented.
It was enough, more than enough (for the foreboding
dread was ever present, that such a blissful calm,
such mental and bodily repose, were far, far too sweet
for any long continuance) to be employed in little
services for and about the person of the Queen, and
to know that Arthur Stanley was restored to even more
than former favor, and fast rising to eminence and
honor.

Before the sovereigns quitted Segovia, Stanley left
the court to march southward with Pedro Pas, to occupy
a strong fortification on the barrier line, dividing
the Spanish from the Moorish territories, and commanding
a very important post, which Ferdinand was anxious
to secure, and where he intended to commence his warlike
operations, as speedily as he could settle affairs
at Saragossa. Twice before Stanley’s departure
did Isabella contrive an apparently accidental meeting
between him and Marie, permitting them, though in her
presence, ample opportunity for mutual explanation;
but not with much evident success. Stanley, indeed,
was painfully and visibly agitated, finding it difficult,
almost impossible to speak the feelings which had
so long filled heart and mind, and been in fancy so
often thrown into eloquent words, that he could not
understand why in her presence words were frozen up,